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Essay from the year 2012 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: A, University of Brighton, language: English, abstract: Food cultures evolve over time and it is important to analyse cultural and sociological influences, when analysing the development. The roots of the African-American food culture were formed during the slavery in the United States of America. This paper analyses the history of the African-American food culture, as well as the roots of the traditional soul food. Furthermore it aims to analyse whether there is a relationship between historical facts and the obesity, which many African-Americans face today.
Psyche A. Williams-Forson is one of our leading thinkers about food in America. In Eating While Black, she offers her knowledge and experience to illuminate how anti-Black racism operates in the practice and culture of eating. She shows how mass media, nutrition science, economics, and public policy drive entrenched opinions among both Black and non-Black Americans about what is healthful and right to eat. Distorted views of how and what Black people eat are pervasive, bolstering the belief that they must be corrected and regulated. What is at stake is nothing less than whether Americans can learn to embrace nonracist understandings and practices in relation to food. Sustainable culture—what keeps a community alive and thriving—is essential to Black peoples' fight for access and equity, and food is central to this fight. Starkly exposing the rampant shaming and policing around how Black people eat, Williams-Forson contemplates food's role in cultural transmission, belonging, homemaking, and survival. Black people's relationships to food have historically been connected to extreme forms of control and scarcity—as well as to stunning creativity and ingenuity. In advancing dialogue about eating and race, this book urges us to think and talk about food in new ways in order to improve American society on both personal and structural levels.
"A bold, compelling challenge to conventional thinking about obesity and its fixes, Weighing In is one of the most important books on food politics to hit the shelves in a long time." —Susanne Freidberg, author of Fresh: A Perishable History "Weighing In is filled with counterintuitive surprises that should make us skeptics of all kinds of food -- whether local, fast, slow, junk or health -- but also gives us the practical tools to effectively scrutinize the stale buffet of popularly-accepted health wisdom before we digest it." —Paul Robbins, professor of Geography and Development, University of Arizona "If you liked Michael Pollan, this should be your next read. Guthman gives us the research behind the questions we should be asking, but, falling all over ourselves in the rush to consensus, we have overlooked. A self-described Berkeley foodie, Guthman takes on the self-satisfaction of the alternative food movement and places it in rich context, drawing on research in health, economics, labor, agriculture, sociology, and politics. This marvelous, surprising book is a true game-changer in our national conversation about food and justice." —Anna Kirkland, author of Fat Rights: Dilemmas of Difference and Personhood “This groundbreaking book calls into question the ubiquitous claim that ‘good food’ will solve the social and health dilemmas of today. Combining political economic analysis, cultural critique, and clear explanation of scientific discoveries, the author challenges our deeply held convictions about society, food, bodies, and environments.” —Becky Mansfield, editor of Privatization: Property and the Remaking of Nature-Society Relations "Step back from that farmer's market -- Guthman shows us that good foods and good eating are not enough. By questioning the fuzzy facts on obesity, the impact of environment, and capitalism's relentless push to consume, Weighing In challenges us to think harder, and better, about what it really takes to be healthy in the modern age." —Carolyn de la Peña, author of Empty Pleasures: The Story of Artificial Sweetener from Saccharin to Splenda
Comprehensively and culturally examines obesity in the Black American community, offering a new intervention to fight the epidemic.
During the past decade, tremendous growth has occurred in the use of nutrition symbols and rating systems designed to summarize key nutritional aspects and characteristics of food products. These symbols and the systems that underlie them have become known as front-of-package (FOP) nutrition rating systems and symbols, even though the symbols themselves can be found anywhere on the front of a food package or on a retail shelf tag. Though not regulated and inconsistent in format, content, and criteria, FOP systems and symbols have the potential to provide useful guidance to consumers as well as maximize effectiveness. As a result, Congress directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to undertake a study with the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to examine and provide recommendations regarding FOP nutrition rating systems and symbols. The study was completed in two phases. Phase I focused primarily on the nutrition criteria underlying FOP systems. Phase II builds on the results of Phase I while focusing on aspects related to consumer understanding and behavior related to the development of a standardized FOP system. Front-of-Package Nutrition Rating Systems and Symbols focuses on Phase II of the study. The report addresses the potential benefits of a single, standardized front-label food guidance system regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, assesses which icons are most effective with consumer audiences, and considers the systems/icons that best promote health and how to maximize their use.
The history of food culture among African Americans spans different spaces from the cultural influences of African cuisine, to cooking survival practices during the time of enslavement, to the distinct styles, ingredients, and popular flavors of Soul food today. Food culture contributes to Black adult obesity prevalence. Thus, understanding the role of cultural, environmental, and sociodemographic factors on obesity by the geographic residence of Black adults is important as obesity rises to epidemic levels in the U.S. A weighted sample from the 2020 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System consisting of 401,958 Black respondents was employed to conduct an analysis. Descriptive and inferential statistics, including measures of central tendency and correlations, and multiple linear regression (MLR) were conducted. The findings revealed that 20% Black or Greater Southern states ([beta]=-0.04), metropolitan status ([beta]=0.03), Stroke Belt states ([beta]=-0.02), and Census region (([beta]=-0.01) contributed significantly to the variance in BMI for Black adults. However, the MLR model with the greatest explanatory power included only Southern states with a 20% or greater proportion of residents that were Black in 2020. General health, sex, and diabetes were the variables most highly associated with BMI among Black adults. Geography variables provided minimal explanation for the variance in BMI. The variables with the strongest associations with BMI in Black adults related more to sociocultural factors. Black women, when compared to Black men, were more likely to be obese, but their perception of body weight was correlated with self-reported comorbidities.
Obesity as a growing epidemic in the United States occurs in higher rates within Black-American populations. Although 100 million Americans in the United States are considered overweight or obese, Black-American women have the highest prevalence rate of obesity than any other subgroup. Most studies focus on unhealthy eating practices, lack of exercise, sedentary lifestyles, differential access to nutritious food and lack of adequate health care as contributors of obesity in Black-American women. But these studies are narrow in approach, lacking cultural constructions and food habits pertinent to the history and biography of Black-Americans. This dissertation explores Black women's perceptions of black culture, food habits, body image and obesity in Columbia, Missouri. This dissertation is theoretically rooted in the tradition of symbolic interaction, which is best suited to explore the culturally derived ritualistic behaviors and traditions within Black Culture. By investigating food habits and cooking practices as symbolic manifestations, direct associations to the development of self, identity and in-group ethnic affiliation emerges. This research uses narratives from 15 in-depth interviews, compiled over a two year period. Results indicate black women's perceptions of self, identity, food habits, and body image was socio-cultural constructions. When holistically viewed, insights provided rich interpretations of one's life experiences and interactions within the groups' cultural milieu.
Obesity prevalence in North America is the highest in the developed world, a situation that calls for a deeper understanding of this complex phenomenon. Brief yet comprehensive, The Obesity Epidemic in North America offers a much-needed examination of the effects of human evolution, environmental changes, human variation, poverty, and culture. An ideal supplement in nutritional anthropology or medical anthropology classes, the books rare biocultural perspective helps readers grasp the root causes of obesity. As Bellisari sees it, the medical and nutrition-science fields are fully engaged in developing strategies to address the obesity problem. It is institutions, such as political and economic organizations, as well as society itself, that need to become more proactive in improving obesity-related public health. This text provides a giant first step toward that end.
Eating Right in America is a powerful critique of dietary reform in the United States from the late nineteenth-century emergence of nutritional science through the contemporary alternative food movement and campaign against obesity. Charlotte Biltekoff analyzes the discourses of dietary reform, including the writings of reformers, as well as the materials they created to bring their messages to the public. She shows that while the primary aim may be to improve health, the process of teaching people to "eat right" in the U.S. inevitably involves shaping certain kinds of subjects and citizens, and shoring up the identity and social boundaries of the ever-threatened American middle class. Without discounting the pleasures of food or the value of wellness, Biltekoff advocates a critical reappraisal of our obsession with diet as a proxy for health. Based on her understanding of the history of dietary reform, she argues that talk about "eating right" in America too often obscures structural and environmental stresses and constraints, while naturalizing the dubious redefinition of health as an individual responsibility and imperative.
In the 2001 Surgeon General's Call to Action to Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity, former Surgeon General David Satcher, MD, PhD, warned of the negative effects of the increasing weight of American citizens and outlined a public health response to reverse the trend. The Surgeon General plans to strengthen and expand this blueprint for action created by her predecessor. Although the country has made some strides since 2001, the prevalence of obesity, obesity-related diseases, and premature death remains too high.